How not to debate Afstan

One has sympathized with Sen. Colin Kenny's desire that our politicians would discuss the Afghan situation seriously for the benefit of the public. The problem is that they just won't. Brian Platt at The Canada-Afghanistan Blog:

CKNW, Afghanistan, And Our Terrible Politicians

I attended a CKNW radio show today at the Afghan Horsemen restaurant, where they were doing a live town hall discussion on Canada and Afghanistan. Their interviews included a Canadian soldier, an Afghan-Canadian, and a poli-sci prof at SFU--but also Terry Glavin, who closed the show with a magnificent spiel that cut through all the bullshit and left us in speechless awe. The fact that Terry only got three minutes to speak out of a 2-hour show is criminal.

You can hear hour 1 of the show here. Hour 2 here. Yours truly has a short time at the mike at the 32:40 mark of the first hour. But if nothing else, make sure you hear the last five minutes of hour 2.

The bulk of the show was taken up by a panel discussion with three MPs: Andrew Saxton from the Tories, Ujjal Dosanjh from the Liberals, and Peter Julian from the NDP. The segment was mostly useless, with the MPs spouting their talking points and trying to score points off each other. Why on earth would CKNW think that was the best use of the show's time? Beats the hell out of me...

Update:

...
milnews.ca said...

P.S. - You were right about Terry's bit. Here's an .mp3 of his summation as a stand-alone - great radio! Well done TGG